A refreshing weekend

Brian and I had a great weekend in Brenham, Texas on a couples retreat with our church. It was so nice to be together. The bed and breakfast was so nice, we had time to ourselves, we were able to play cards and go to dinner twice...without highchairs and without chicken nuggets.

Rick and Sue came down to watch the kids for us. They had lots of fun getting extra special attention from their grandparents, and didn't seem miss us at all!

It was Dad's night at Jacob's preschool last night. Jacob was pretty excited. He had made Brian a special tie, they ate pizza, drank koolaid (Jacob had 4 cups) had snow cones, made a craft, and played in his room. Jacob didn't want to go home because he was having so much fun, and Brian had a good time too!

Jacob is in a fake smile phase, so if you wonder why I don't seem to have as many "happy pictures" of Jacob, it is because he is either turning his back on me and running off, or flashes me a cheesy grin like this one...

Gwyn is just a happy little girl who loves to dance to any music. I'll try to get a video up soon, because she is HILARIOUS when she dances.

This is Gwyn holding her love bugs up that Rick and Sue brought down for her. They sing a song when you press a button and she LOVES it. She immediately starts dancing, and really prefers when all of her animals are lined up and signing. We have two dogs and duck that each sing (all from Hallmark and all from Rick and Sue), these were all Jacob's but Gwyn has claimed them all now.

Oh, and my dad's birthday is this Saturday, January 31st, so Happy Birthday DAD!

Family Fun Day at Discovery Green Park

We had a family fun day at the Discovery Green park in downtown Houston. We've been there a few times last year, and it is great time to go when the weather is so nice. There is this large hill (yes, we have some hills here in Houston, although this one is just slightly sloped and man-made) and the kids loved to run up and down it. Well, Gwyn loved running down it and then got carried back up. We took the wagon with us, and the kids had alot of fun, although we got worn out.

Here is Gwyn eating an apple on the picnic, she really wasn't interested in eating tiny little cut up pieces of it, she wanted to chomp down on it herself, and surprisingly she ate quite a bit of it that way. By the way, the red mark on her face is from falling on the concrete outside our house...again, she was running and the black eye only lasted a couple of days.

Here is Brian and Jacob with their sandwiches.

We just can't believe Gwyn is going to be 1 in a couple of weeks. She is growing so fast, is starting to get an attitude (fully expresses what she wants by yelling at you until she gets it), is down to 4 bottles / day (yeah, we are making progress!), loves to play with Jacob, runs pretty much everywhere she goes, and LOVES to eat just about anything. Tonight she ate an entire tub of quacamole by herself at Mission Burrito.

Jacob is probably going to end up being a runner, he's really fast and loves to run, which is sometimes a bad thing for us. He is also on a pistachio nut kick. He gets to eat twice as many in half the time by having someone (me) crack open them for him and line up the nuts for him to eat.

Back in the groove

We're trying to get back to a regular schedule this week. Jacob went to his preschool on Monday and Wednesday, and my Bible study started back up on Tuesday. The weather got a little cooler here this week, but we've still managed to play outside in the afternoons. Gwyn is walking so well now, she practically has to run everywhere just to keep up with Jacob, but there is no stopping her.

Brian has been sick this week. He got sick last weekend and I think he is finally getting over it. It will be nice to have him back on the "night shift." We usually switch having "duty" every other night, so that at least we're getting somewhat decent sleep every other night. The kids generally sleep pretty well, but haven't really gotten back to sleeping all the way through the night since the first of December. Gwyn is getting two more teeth and Jacob's last molar just broke through the other day. Gwyn will wake up around 5 am and want a bottle and goes back to sleep, and Jacob has been waking up 2-3 times/night, he wants to pray again and then goes right back to sleep.

Jacob has insisted on picking out his clothes this week. In general, he's done a pretty good job, but he's picking out only short sleeved shirts, so I have to make him wear a long sleeved shirt underneath since it has been cooler. He thinks he is cool because he wears two shirts. Hopefully this is just a phase, because he has picked out some pretty weird stuff that just doesn't go together (these pictures don't show the plaid pants he has on).

Gwyn, however, is really stylin' these days! Thanks John and Claudia for this outfit, I was able to get one button the vest buttoned together, but then she busted it open later!

Gwyn is "addicted" to her bottles, so I tried to start reducing the number of bottles she gets this week, so that the transition from formula (which costs $25/jumbo can of which she goes through almost 2/week) to whole milk goes smoothly when she turns 1 in a few weeks. Today she only took 4 bottles, so hopefully I can stick to that this week, then go down to 3 the next week and so on. One thing she loves is juice boxes...poor thing has never had one of her own, but Jacob will give her his when he's finished and she sucks that thing dry trying to get a few drops and then she carries the empty juice box around for awhile longer.

We're looking forward to next week...for one thing, the 2 hour season premiere of LOST is on! We are also going on a weekend trip to Brenham to a bed and breakfast for a couples retreat with our church. We're excited, it will be our first trip away together and Rick and Sue are coming down to watch the kids.

In Memory...

Brian's grandmother, Louella Katherine Katterhenry, passed away last Sunday, January 4th. We went up to St. Louis for the funeral, and my mom was able to come down to watch the kids (with Jason's help). It was a sad time, but also a celebration of a life well lived. She was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in August 2002, and was given 6 - 12 months to live. Her Dr. said he had never had or heard of a patient living as long as she did (6 1/2 years) with the same prognosis. She accomplished so much in that time, and lived a fairly active life. They visited us in Louisiana and also in Houston a couple of times. She was able to see Jacob on several occasions, and she met Gwyn last summer when Brian flew up with her (by himself and a bag of frozen breastmilk) to St. Louis, so his grandma could meet Gwyn in person.

I was kind of amazed at how much she accomplished in those years. She stiched by hand (a sewing machine was used only for the borders) quilts for every grandchild, she knitted several baby hats for premmature babies at the hospital, and knitted I think 88 stockings (we have 4 of them). I also learned she was in charge of counting the offerings from her church on Mondays (and was a member of her church for 54 years), and gave of herself constantly to those in need in her church in the form of meals or whatever was needed.

I had always really considered myself so different from her since we grew up in different times, but we just finished the Love and Respect study in our Sunday school class by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. Check it out if you get a chance (www.loveandrespect.com). The basis is biblical principle that a man should unconditionally love his wife and a woman should unconditionally respect her husband. It just got me thinking how much Brian's grandpa so visibly unconditionally loved his grandma, and how much she respected him. She embraced her role as a wife and mother, something I strive to do as well.

Happy New Year!

We wish everyone a Happy New Year! We have had a great week with Brian home all week from work! Brian and I each took turns sleeping in (mostly until 8 am, but hey, it is better than 6 am!), we played, we went shopping, we took Jacob and Gwyn to bounce (Gwyn even went down a slide on her own...she was laughing on the way down), we ran errands, we watched some movies, we hung out with friends and watched OSU lose in the Holiday Bowl, and we spent some time with some family. Brian enjoyed being home with us, but I think he might be a little ready to go back to work! Ha! We wore him out.

Jacob got a shaving kit from his friend Maddy for Christmas, so Brian taught Jacob how to shave and use all his new tools, a mirror, a brush, shaving cream, a comb, and a plastic fake razor (I had to make sure I put that in there so everyone knows that they are toys and not real). He now has to shave every night in the bath. Brian keeps trying to tell him you don't want to have to start now, the more you shave the more you have to, but for some reason he thinks it is the funnest thing!

Gwyn is finally able to really wear dresses! She would get so mad when she was crawling and had a dress on when her knee would get caught on the dress and it would stop her in her tracks and then she would scream, so she really hasn't worn many dresses for the past few months. Now that she is walking, she has been able to wear dresses, so here is her in one with a little headband. I have to really distract her so she'll let me put on her headband. If she doesn't know it is there, then she'll wear it, but if she knows it is there, then it is coming right off.

That is all for now, I hope to continue posting once / week this next year...we'll see how I do!